Past Films

Whose Streets?

Starring: Brittany Ferrell, Tef Poe, Kayla Reed

Director(s): Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: R

Running Time: 100 min.

Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the national guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance. Filmmakers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis know this story because they are the story. Whose Streets? is a powerful battle cry from a generation fighting, not for their civil rights, but for the right to live.

"Here's what you didn't see if you aren't from there. Here are the voices you didn't hear if you didn't go there."

- Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice

"It presents so many important images-racism, hatred and so much love-and dares you not to be moved."

- Nick Allen, RogerEbert.com

"Whose Streets? doesn't pretend to solve any problems, only illuminate those that are happening everyday. It's a documentary that lives and breathes in the here and now."

- Adam Graham, Detroit News

"Told from the perspective of activists, artists, and residents, Whose Streets? is a commemoration of and tribute to the humans of Ferguson."

- Lovia Gyarkye, The New Republic

"Whose Streets? looks beyond the media narrative to offer what Davis has called "black people seeing black people" - validation, encouragement and love in the face of a bitter legacy of injustice."

- Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times

"A riveting street-level account, not only of Ferguson's days of rage, but also the decades of marginalization and mistreatment that led up to them."

- Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

"It represents the spirit of something more powerful than a bullet, the seed of something good springing from a terrible and unjust event."

- Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine

"Ultimately, Whose Streets? is timely not only because of its social message, but also because it fully embraces the cell phone footage and tweets that have been crucial tools in the Black Lives Matter and other movements."

- G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle

"Raw and unadorned, Whose Streets? is a documentary in the truest sense of the word; an actual moving document of events fresh in the country's memory, but never before laid as bare as they are here."

- Jude Dry, indieWire

"It's likely not even the most well-intentioned and determined news crews could gain the kind of access and give us the unfiltered viewpoints provided by the smart-phone visuals and home video camera footage shot by residents of Ferguson."